Maniax Axe Throwing To Expand To Newstead

Brisbane now has a new option for de-stressing, with a new establishment coming in soon. But instead of food or drinks, the activity on the list is axe throwing.

Adam Schilling, founder and owner of Maniax Axe Throwing, the AU’s first hatchet flinging business, will be opening his newest venue in Newstead when November rolls in. This will be his business’s third location, and its first in Brisbane, following the success of its current locations with team building in Sydney and Melbourne.

Similar in format to darts, people come in and compete in throwing axes at a target, playing either a double-elimination or a round-robin competition, which allows for some friendly competition and catharsis. Schilling, an airline pilot, said that he got the idea when he visited Canada for a friend’s wedding.

He says that he tried to book an axe throwing session, but couldn’t, thanks to the venue he found being so busy.

It didn’t really matter, however, as his friend, for whom he travelled to Canada to, was fellow Aussie Stephen Thomas, who discovered the activity while living in Toronto. Once Thomas moved back to the AU, he and Schilling decided to partner together, going into a joint venture, and opening their first Maniax in Sydney back in 2015. The venture has been fairly successful amidst the many venues for team building in Sydney, and was followed by a Melbourne venue earlier in 2018, right before Thomas’s share in the business was acquired by Schilling.

Schilling believes that the reason that axe-throwing is so popular is that because it’s quite cathartic. He says that the modern age is quite stressful, and Maniax gives them a place where they can come in, throw an axe and safely release.

Maniax’s core focus is bringing people together, whether for casual reasons, fun events, or even for corporate team-building. The new facility to be opened in Brisbane will be featuring five lanes for group booking, with four additional lanes for walk-ins, a first for the business.

Schilling says that these new lanes will let people just walk in on their lunch break or after work and just throw axes until they’ve had enough.

Maniax, while the first axe-throwing business in Australia, is not the first in Queensland, with Lumber Punks having opened on the Gold Coast in 2017, before expanding to West End in August.